The article analyzes the main features of the new political regime formation in Russia in the 1990s and the role that the Russian media played in the formation of a new complex of power. The mechanisms of the new oligarchic groups’ control over the media, the transfer of leading newspapers, magazines and tele-vision to private ownership and the causes of the gradual erosion of Russian journalism are revealed. The decisive role in this process be-longed to the acceptance by the media, along with government bodies of the new corporate “logic”. The author emphasizes that the pro-cess of socio-political transformation in Russia is significantly (in some aspects even radically) different from the policy of reforms pursued by the political elites of Central and Eastern Eu-rope. The distinction appeared despite the ex-istence of common premises, the historical and systemic unity of the changes that took place in post-communist countries.